1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information display terminal that displays guidance to a destination.
2) Description of the Related Art
In a construction such as a station yard and a department store where a plurality of facilities (e.g. doorway, ticket gate, elevator, and restroom) are present, a guidance terminal (sign terminal) that displays guidance to a target facility is installed at places for guiding a user to the facilities. Such a guidance terminal displays an arrow that indicates the direction to a target facility from the position where the guidance terminal is installed, and texts that indicate the name of the facility. When a user goes to a place where he/she wants to go (target facility) from where he/she is, the user can confirm the direction to the target facility that he/she should advance to by looking at contents displayed on the guidance terminal that guides to the target facility.
When the guidance terminal shows an arrow indicating the direction to the target facility, the arrow represents the direction that the user should advance to from the current position. However, the user may not be able to grasp the direction clearly by looking at the arrow depending on the direction to the target facility because the arrow is displayed two-dimensionally. For example, when the arrow points at a horizontal direction, the user may interpret that the direction to the target facility is to the right or left of him/her at the current position or that he/she should turn right or left after advancing several steps. When an arrow points upward obliquely, the user may interpret that if he/she advances several steps, there is a passage that extends obliquely, and he/she should advance along the passage, or that if he/she advances several steps, there are stairs, and he/she should go up them.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-249095 discloses a technique of displaying icons to indicate facilities.
According to the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-249095, icons of motion images are displayed as guidance to facilities such as an escalator, a moving sidewalk, and a taxi stand. For example, in case of an ascending escalator, an icon at the entrance of the escalator displays an animation of a motion image showing a person entering the entrance, getting on the escalator, going up on the escalator, and exiting from the exit upstairs. This technique enables a user at the entrance of the escalator to recognize the direction of the ascending motion of the escalator.
In another example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-248279 discloses a technique of guiding to a destination using a touch panel that displays a guidance map to a destination and a display that displays a landscape image of the guidance route to the destination.
According to the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-248279, when a user operates the touch panel to specify a destination, the touch panel displays a guidance map that shows the guidance route to the destination, and along with it, the display displays a landscape image of the route to the destination. The user advances along the guidance route memorizing the landscaping image, and compares the memorized landscape image with the landscape that he/she actually sees; thereby, the user can avoid going off the guidance route.
According to the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-249095, operations of facilities such as an escalator, a moving sidewalk, and a taxi stand are shown to make it easy for a user to use the facilities. In this case, a state of a user using a facility is displayed on an icon; therefore, the user can understand how to use the facility.
However, the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-249095 does not guide the route to the facility. The position of the facility is shown on a guidance map, and a user has to judge the direction and the route to the destination by looking at the guidance map.
According to the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-248279, a landscape image of the route to the destination is displayed, and it becomes possible to judge whether a user is on the right route to the destination based on the landscape image. This requires a user to memorize the landscape image of the route displayed on the display accurately, and to memorize the route displayed on the touch panel. Thus, a user has to memorize a large amount of information, and this places a much burden on him/her.
An object of the present invention is to solve the problems, and provide an information display terminal that enables a user to grasp the direction to a destination rapidly and surely, and can guide him/her to the destination without placing a burden on the user.